European state, with its capital Lisbon, located in the western part of the Iberian Peninsula. Inhabited before the Roman conquest by populations of Iberian stock and culture such as the Lusitani, the Vettoni and the Calleci, the region corresponding to the od. Portugal was detached from Augustus from Hispania Ulterior and constituted as an autonomous province of Lusitania et Vettonia; Callaecia, included in Hispania Tarraconensis, became an autonomous province with the administrative reorganization of Diocletian (297) and included the od. Galicia, part of the North Hispanic plateau and all of the od. Portugal north up to the course of the Duero.After the pact (foedus) established between the barbarian populations and the Roman power (411), the Swabians and the Asdingi Vandals divided Callaecia, the first settling in the ancient legal conventus of Braga (v.). A century later, the Visigothic king Leovigild entered Galicia and took possession of Porto and Braga (585) and annexed the Swabian kingdom. The contemporary historical sources of Orosio (Historia adversum paganos), of Idazio (Chronicon), of Giovanni di Biclaro (Chronicon), which document the contacts of the region with the Mediterranean East, belong to this period. Documentary sources relating to the Christianization and ecclesiastical organization of the provinces of Callaecia and Lusitania under the reign of the Swabians and Visigoths are found in the acts of the first (561) and second (572) councils of Braga and in the Parochiale Suevum (Divisio Theodomiri Conc. Lucense 569; David, 1947; de Jesús da Costa, 1959).With the formation of the Swabian kingdom, the ecclesiastical province of Braga went beyond the traditional borders of Roman Callaecia and extended to the Tagus, including the Lusitanian dioceses of Coimbra (v.), Lamego, Viseu and Idanha, whose metropolis was Mérida (Emerita) in the prov. of Badajoz, Spain. This territorial expansion involved the division of the province of Callaecia into two administrative districts or synods, one based in Braga and the other in Lugo in Galicia, Spain. This division, generally attributed to the council of Lugo in 569, already existed in 561, since on this date the bishops of Coimbra and Idanha attended the first council of Braga (de Jesús da Costa, 1959). In the second council of Braga – presided over by s. Martin of Braga (ca. 510-579), to whom we owe the ecclesiastical reorganization – the diocese of the same name had as suffragans those of Dumio, Meinedo, Coimbra, Lamego, Viseu and Idanha. The dioceses to the South del Duero belonged to the metropolis of Braga until shortly after 650, when the bishop Oroncio, metropolitan of Mérida, reorganized the ecclesiastical province of Lusitania. Braga was reduced again to the traditional borders of Roman Callaecia, also disappearing the division into synods.The Carthaginiensis province, devastated by the Vandals (425) and the Swabians (432) and occupied by the Byzantines in 554, was divided into two metropolises: Carthage for the territory occupied by the latter, which perhaps included the diocese of Ossonoba (od. Milreu near Faro) in the Algarve (v.), and Toledo for the territory dominated by the Visigoths.
According to Health-Beauty-Guides, the conversion of the Swabians to Arianism and the Priscillian survivals, combined with deep-rooted pagan traditions, were among the factors that caused a new Christianization of the Galician-Durian region, initiated by Martin of Braga. In addition to founding the abbey-bishopric of Dumio near Braga (c. 550) and being metropolitan of the city itself (c. 570), Martin was the great propeller of the monastic institution in the rural environment, establishing the foundations of what century later s. Fruttuoso di Braga (d. In c. 665) would continue in his Regula monachorum (Diaz y Diaz, 1976; Torres Rodriguez, 1977). According to Real (1995), the church of the monastic complex of Dumio and, perhaps, that of Meinedo (Douro Litoral, v.), With their trefoil head of the century. 6 °, are clear examples of the probable autonomy of the North-West architecture dear to Hispano-Visigothic art of emeritense radiation (Ferreira de Almeida, 1986; Fontes, 1987; 1990) Paleochristian art, in its Swabian or Visigothic context, is ‘an art of continuity’: in the North-West it is appreciated for he large number of acanthus leaf capitals found in primitive places of worship, while in the south of the country, where the emeritense influence is strongly highlighted, the signs of continuity come to the same ornamental sculpture (Real, 1995). The Christian inscriptions of Mértola (v.), With Greek characters, constitute an expression of the Mediterranean current combined with Syriac Christianity that had an influence in the area of Lusitania, as well as relations with northern Africa can be appreciated in the early Christian basilicas of Torre de Palma near Monforte (Alentejo) and Mértola, both with opposing apses (Ferreira de Almeida, 1986; Real, 1995).
The chronology, construction phases and stylistic filiation of some monuments and ornamental elements commonly classified as ‘Visigoths’ are currently being re-examined. The funerary chapel of São Frutuoso, in the parish of São Jerónimo de Real, in the locality of Montélios near Braga, whose initial construction dates back to the 13th century. 7th, underwent an important makeover in the first half of the 10th, presenting stylistic similarities with the Mozarabic basilica of São Pedro in Lourosa, consecrated in 912 (Beira Alta; see Beira) and with the cathedral of Egitania (od. Idanha-a -Velha, Beira Baixa; Kingsley, 1980; Ferreira de Almeida, 1986; Caballero Zoreda, 1991; Torres, 1992; Real, 1995).
